Another smartphone brand caught using professional photos as smartphone camera samples: What the company co-founder said

Nothing, the London-based technology company known for its products’ unique design, has been caught using licensed stock photographs on its in-store demo units to promote the camera capabilities of its newly-launched Phone 3, a report has said. It has been claimed that five sample images, which the company implied were captured by the device, were actually purchased stock photos taken with other cameras.The Verge reports that a photographer claimed that an image of a woman was licensed by Nothing from the Stills stock photo marketplace and was not taken with a Phone 3. The publication claims that it examined the image’s EXIF data, which showed the photo was taken in 2023 – long before the Phone 3 was released.Meanwhile, Roman Fox, the photographer behind another one of the featured images—a car headlight—also confirmed to Android Authority that Nothing had paid for the photo, which he captured in 2023 using a Fujifilm XH2s camera. The five photographs, which also included a spiral staircase, a glass, and a window, were displayed on the demo units with the tagline: “Judge for yourself. Here’s what our community has captured with Phone 3.”In a statement posted on X, Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis addressed the situation, claiming the stock images were merely placeholders that should have been updated before the demo units were rolled out. The incident has raised questions about the ethics of using misleading visuals in product marketing.“We are also investigating internally to make sure such an issue doesn’t happen again. This was an unfortunate oversight, and I want to emphasise that there was no ill intent,” said Evangelidis.“In the meantime, inviting the community to share their Phone (3) pictures to help clear up any confusion and show what its camera is capable of,” he added.This is not a first time incident. Previously, Huawei and Samsung were accused of using DSLR photos as images taken from their smartphone cameras.